Mine is an $800 HPC that fits, is able to lift the face as well as the visor, and I wouldn’t be seen dead without one. Helmets have been compulsory in Australia for my entire life. I fail to see why they’d be anything else. This is a public health issue.

Many years ago, an old friend’s brother came around a corner on his ‘cycle, caught the setting sun in his eyes, and didn’t see the (fortunately parked) pickup before he was wedged *under* it. Cracked his helmet into several pieces. He limped away with scrapes and bruises . . . and, most importantly, an intact skull. Because of that incident, I’ve never ridden without a brain bucket; never will, either. Mine’s saved me from earning myself both a concussion and a trip to the E.R. more than once!

Besides, I don’t particularly like bugs in my teeth. No helmet, no visor. Pretty simple decision if you ask me….

I’ve worked in the newspaper business for more than 15 years, listening to the police scanner for many of them. It is not just the helmet. It was a ridiculous ratio of calls to motorcycle accidents that, when the scene was cleared, had to call for the fire department for a “wash down” – and it was for more than just a little gasoline or oil on the pavement. I don’t ride a motorcycle for that reason. I don’t think I want to know what it feels like to have your skin shaved off over a 50 yard stretch.

An EMS guy I met told a story of riding to the hospital with someone who’d survived a motorcycle accident and explained that she didn’t wear a helmet because “it only protects the top of your head anyway.”

Grunt Doc said “Helmetless riding is legal in Texas (at some age, it’s either 18 or 21).”

Yikes!

When I was there the guys I knew were not quite, or were soon to be 21 and were required to wear helmets (1975, freshmen to juniors in college). The group of guys that my boyfriend of that time rode with did try to go without helmets in California when they visited Disneyland (when an “E-ticket” had actual meaning). They complained that it really messed with their hair, and their eyes watered too much.

By the way, my 17 year old self learned how to control the speed of the ride by gently squeezing the ribs of boyfriend to keep him from speeding around the curves of country roads in the Texas Hill Country.